The Emerald City (Seattle) Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1962 World's Fair

The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World's Fair. During the fair, a maximum of nearly 20,000 visitors rode the elevator to the observation and restaurant decks. It's possible to see the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, many nearby islands, and many of Seattle's lakes from the observation deck.

The Space Needle was built to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 and category-5 windstorms. It sways about one inch for every 10 mph wind force. Unlike many towers it is not used for broadcasting. At the time of its construction it was the tallest building in the United States west of the Mississippi River.

Answer: Olympic Mountains

The Olympic Mountains are found on the Olympic Peninsula near the Pacific Ocean. They are part of the Pacific Coast Range, also found in British Columbia. The highest mountain in the Olympics is Mount Olympus at 7962 feet.

The Cascade Mountains are east of Seattle and divide the states of Washington and Oregon into different climatic regions. The coastal regions have moderate temperatures and significant precipitation. The eastern regions are much drier and have wider temperature variations.

The Siskiyou Mountain range is in California and Southern Oregon.

Answer: Mount Rainier

Mount Hood (11,250 feet high) and Mount St Helens (8366 feet high) are both about 50 miles from Portland Oregon. Mount Baker (10,281 feet high) is about 30 miles from Bellingham, Washington - which is very near the Canadian border.

Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in the Cascade Mountains at 14,411 feet high. It is a stratovolcano, which last erupted between 1820 and 1854. It is the most heavily glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states and is topped by two volcanic craters. Although it is listed as dormant, it is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world, one of sixteen tracked in the Decade Volcano list. An eruption could cause melting of the glaciers and devastating mudslides over a wide region.

Answer: Nob Hill

Nob Hill is one of the famous hills in San Francisco. The other three hills are prominent hills in Seattle.

Queen Anne Hill is the highest of Seattle's seven hills. In the early days of the city, many of the leaders constructed mansions on the hill. Later the local television stations erected broadcast towers there.

Beacon Hill is south of the Seattle downtown area that was once the site of Amazon's headquarters.

Capitol Hill is located just east of the downtown area and is now a prominent location for nightlife and entertainment. (I traveled through Capitol Hill to go to high school).

Many of the seven listed hills for Seattle are part of higher ground by the downtown area. Other hilly regions are present throughout the city. For instance, my grade school in south Seattle required a 3/4 mile
steep walk to a spectacular view of Lake Washington.

Answer: Tacoma

If you fly into Seattle, you'll arrive at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport, better known as SeaTac. Tacoma is about 30 miles south of Seattle, whereas Olympia is about 65 miles south of Seattle. Spokane in eastern Washington and Vancouver near the Oregon border are each hundreds of miles from Seattle.

Tacoma was named after the local Indian name for Mount Rainier. Seattle rose to a more prominent position as a supply port for the Alaskan Gold Rush. In the 1970s Tacoma suffered severe economic hardships, especially in the lumber industry; although it has recently seen an economic resurgence. Tacoma is probably most famous for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in a gale, the so-called Galloping Gertie.

Answer: Lake Washington

Lake Washington is the second largest lake in the state of Washington after Lake Chelan, approximately 22 miles in length with an average depth of 108 feet. It is fed by the Cedar and Sammamish rivers and flows out to the Lake Washington Shipping canal towards Puget Sound. The depth of the lake and the muddy bottom prevented the use of pilings or towers to support suspension bridges; so pontoon or floating bridges were used instead.

The lake is used extensively for boating and sailing, hosting the annual Seafair Cup for unlimited hydroplanes since 1951. Seattle didn't have teams in the top divisions of any sport until 1968 (NBA basketball) and much later for baseball and football. So the Seafair Cup was the major sport event in Seattle for many years with an estimated 100,000 people watching the race from the shoreline or in boats.

Lake Seattle doesn't exist. Lake Union (near the University of Washington) and Lake Sammamish (east of Bellevue) both exist but are smaller and don't meet the other criteria.

Answer: Open air market

Pike Place opened in 1907 and is one of the oldest, continuously operated farmers' markets in the U.S. The upper levels contain produce market stands and fishmongers with the local catch (often tossing the fish around). Lower levels have shops for artisans, craftsmen, antique dealers, and restaurants. More than ten million people visit the markets per year, making it Seattle's most popular tourist destination.

Pike Place is about one mile south of the site of the World's Fair and about one mile north of Seattle's Underground City.

Answer: Green River

The Green River arises near Stampede Pass in the Cascade Mountains and flows into the Duwamish River south of Seattle. In the early 1970s serial killer Gary Ridgeway committed a series of murders that went unsolved for 20 years. Some of the victims were found in the Green River and the murderer was referred to as the Green River Killer. Eventually Ridgeway plead guilty to 48 counts of murder.

Answer: Longest pontoon bridge

Pontoon bridges are rarely used as permanent structures. The three bridges crossing Lake Washington and the Hood Canal Bridge near Bremerton, Washington are four of the five longest pontoon bridges in the world. The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, formally known as the Albert Rosellini Floating Bridge, is the longest of these five.

Both the original Lacey Morrow Bridge and the Hood Canal Bridge suffered catastrophic collapses in the past due to high winds and human error. So my wife's nervousness, when we drive over one of the bridges, has some merit.

Answer: Under 40 inches

Ask anyone about Seattle's weather and the answer is the rain. From one standpoint it's true. Seattle has on average 158 days with precipitation during the year. But much of the time it's very light drizzle coupled with a dreary looking sky. Many other American cities, such as Boston and New York, have more rain fall during the average year than Seattle, which receives about 38 inches of rain per year.

The warm ocean waters and the Cascades blocking colder fronts lead to a very temperate climate with surprisingly little snow. However further to the west, parts of the Olympic peninsula receive up to 140 inches of rain in a year.